{"id":714809,"date":"2026-04-20T20:51:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714809\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T20:51:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T20:51:34","slug":"the-hawks-are-going-to-hack-a-mitch-the-knicks-need-to-be-ready","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714809\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hawks are going to Hack-a-Mitch, the Knicks need to be ready"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Atlanta Hawks<\/a> are going to Hack-A-Mitch. The Knicks \u2014 beginning with Mitchell Robinson<\/a> \u2014 need to be ready.<\/p>\n

Robinson played just 15 minutes in the Knicks\u2019 113-102 Game 1 victory over the Hawks to open the Eastern Conference playoff race on Saturday despite recording just one foul in his minutes on the floor.<\/p>\n

The reason: The Hawks, who are banged up at center, intentionally fouled the Knicks\u2019 defensive anchor after his early, impactful minutes in the first half.<\/p>\n

And the result? A quick hook from Knicks head coach Mike Brown after Robinson missed three of his first four free throws of the night.<\/p>\n

Robinson is a notoriously poor free throw shooter who converted on just 40% of his attempts from the charity stripe on the season.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no reason to believe the Hawks will deviate from a plan yielding success in Game 1. Knicks captain Jalen Brunson maintained he has belief in his rim-protecting big man to step to the foul line and shoot it with confidence. In an earlier game this season, Brunson heaved a half court shot as an opponent attempted to intentionally fouled Robinson away from the ball. The play backfired: The nearest official never blew the whistle for a foul, and Brunson\u2019s heave became a missed field goal attempt.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe [I would do that again] if I was a little closer. I think I shot it from pretty far,\u201d he said after practice at the team\u2019s Tarrytown training facility on Sunday. \u201cBut if that\u2019s what they [the Hawks] want to do, that\u2019s the game plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike I said before, I have the utmost confidence in my teammates, in the way I\u2019ve been able to see them work. And we\u2019re gonna figure things out as they go. But I don\u2019t necessarily plan on shooting a half court shot when they\u2019re trying to foul.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson averaged 5.7 points, 8.8\u00a0 rebounds, 1.2 blocks and 0.9 steals in 19.6 minutes over 60 games stat line in his first season under Brown. He finished with three points, four rebounds and two blocks in Game 1 on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Brown said after the victory on Saturday he will give Robinson an opportunity to make free throws if the Hawks continue to hack him away from the ball. It\u2019s a strategy popularized by coaches attempting to slow down Shaquille O\u2019Neal \u2014 the \u201cHack-a-Shaq\u201d \u2014 who dominated as a Hall of Fame big man whose biggest weakness was converting from the free throw line.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will see how the game goes, and we\u2019ll leave him in until we think we need to make a sub. And whenever we feel like we need to make a sub, we will, but we\u2019re going to give him a chance,\u201d said Brown. \u201cBecause if they want to start fouling him, that\u2019ll get us closer to the bonus, and so that\u2019s the time for us to go back to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

CAPTAIN CRUNCH<\/p>\n

Brunson, the NBA\u2019s reigning Clutch Player of the Year, was not among the finalists this time around. Instead, Minnesota\u2019s Anthony Edwards, Oklahoma City\u2019s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> and Denver\u2019s Jamal Murray were the final three in the running for the league\u2019s crunch time award.<\/p>\n

Brunson said the Knicks need to be better in the clutch to punch a 2-0 series lead before hitting the road to play in Atlanta for Game 3. He also said the Knicks need to clean up on the glass.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur late-game execution on both sides of the ball [and] their timely offensive rebounds when we could have went on a run or went on a longer run and extended the lead,\u201d Brunson said after Sunday practice. \u201cThey were able to make some key baskets after some offensive rebounds and so be able to clean that up. I think those are two very important keys. There\u2019s obviously a lot of others, but those two come to mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

GARDEN OF DREAMS<\/p>\n

Josh Hart explained why Madison Square Garden in the playoffs is unlike any other arena.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of those things you have to be there and experience it to really understand it,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously the regular season is always fun. It\u2019s always cool. And I was talking to [someone] yesterday about it. Like, the playoffs in New York is different. The vibe is different. Everything is heightened in The Garden.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou got to experience it, man. The energy, the passion, the love is, you know, it\u2019s. It\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Atlanta Hawks are going to Hack-A-Mitch. The Knicks \u2014 beginning with Mitchell Robinson \u2014 need to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3776],"tags":[676,208,3874,7,677,304,1247,6,34],"class_list":{"0":"post-714809","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-hawks","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-hawks","10":"tag-atlantahawks","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-hawks","13":"tag-knicks","14":"tag-mitchell-robinson","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-playoffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116439016286404970","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}